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The Top 7 Freshman Members of Congress on Twitter

Twitter's popularity among lawmakers has been meteoric. Three years ago less than half of the Senate and House of Representatives were on the platform, now every senator and 90% of representatives are tweeting away.

Twitter use is particularly heavy among the freshman class — almost every freshman member of the recently begun 113th Congress has a public Twitter account.

Who are the top 7 freshman members of Congress on Twitter? Mashable asked Twitter analytics firm PeekAnalytics to find out. PeekAnalytics is able to determine not only a Twitter user network's audience size, but also its social influence and demographic data about audience members.

1. Elizabeth WarrenPhoto via Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren tops our list with 74,000 followers. She has a "pull," PeekAnalytics' term for the influence of a Twitter user's audience, of 150x. And Warren's followers' average network size is 990, which PeekAnalytics offers as an indication of her followers' overall influence.

44% of Warren's Twitter followers are female. Most are over the age of 36 and make over $50,000 annually. Only 19% of her audience is from the state of Massachusetts, with 11% hailing from California and another 10% from New York.

2. Ted CruzPhoto via Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has 41,000 Twitter followers, a pull of 369x and an average network size of 4,000. The vast majority of his followers — 71% — are male, while 69% are over the age of 36. 77% of his followers earn more than $50,000 annually, and a higher than usual percentage of his followers are employed in the automotive industry. 33% of his followers are from Texas, while 7% are from California.

3. Alan GraysonPhoto via Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Alan Grayson, Democratic Representative from Florida, has 36,000 Twitter followers, a "pull" of 76x and an average network size of 1,000. Most of his followers are male and older than 36. Interestingly, most of his followers are from California — Floridians only make up 12% of his followers.

4. Joe KennedyPhoto via Robyn Beck/AFP/GettyImages

Joe Kennedy, Democratic Representative from Massachusetts and great-nephew of president John F. Kennedy, has 8,000 followers, a pull of 29x and an average network size of 1,700. 60% of his followers are male, while 67% are over the age of 36.

65% of his followers make more than $50,000 annually and 31% make more than $100,000 a year. His audience contains an unusually large number of people working in the logistics field. 40% of his audience is from Massachusetts, with 22% from the city of Boston.

5. Tim KainePhoto via Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Tim Kaine, Democratic Senator from Virginia, has 20,000 followers, a pull of 59x and an average network size of 1,500. Most of his followers are male and over 36. 75% of his followers earn more than $50,000 annually, with 32% earning more than $100,000 a year.

His audience contains 25 times as many people who work in the field of law than the average Twitter audience. 29% of his audience is from Virginia, while 14% hail from Washington, D.C.

6. Tammy DuckworthPhoto via Darren Hauck/Getty Images

Democratic Representative from Illinois and veteran of the war in Iraq Tammy Duckworth has 12,000 Twitter followers, a pull of 45x and an average network size of 1,600. Her followers are split male-to-female almost evenly, with 53% male. 67% are over the age of 36, 70% earn more than $50,000 annually and 29% earn more than $100,000 a year.

A full quarter of Duckworth's audience resides in Illinois, while 9% are from California and 8% are from New York. Chicago, as would be expected, is the top city of origin for her followers.

7. Tammy Baldwin

Photo via Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Tammy Baldwin, Democratic Senator from Wisconsin, has 22,000 Twitter followers, a pull of 63x and an average network size of 1,400. Like Duckworth, her following splits almost perfectly evenly between men and women. About 18% of her followers are between 18-25, while half are older than 36. Nearly 70% of her audience earns more than $50,000 annually, and more than a quarter earn more than $100,000 each year.

Her audience contains eight times as many people who work in music than does the average Twitter audience, and four times the number of people who work in software. 25% of Baldwin's audience identifies as hailing from Wisconsin, 8% from California, and 8% from New York. Madison is the top city of origin among her followers, but Milwaukee is tied for third place with New York at 5%.

Are you following any of these lawmakers? Which do you think is the best Twitter user and why? Share in the comments.

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